GDXU vs NUGT: which held to its multiple?
Over three months against its own daily promise, GDXU finished 9.9 points short and NUGT 1.7 points short. MicroSectors Gold Miners 3X Leveraged ETN and Direxion Daily Gold Miners Index Bull 2X ETF.
GDXU returned +25.4% while 3 times GDX's move would have been +50.9%
NUGT returned +27.6% while 2 times GDX's move would have been +33.9%
A percentile among the 470 leveraged ETFs, long, over three months. It is a position in a set, not a rating, and neither end of it is a recommendation. All leveraged ETFs ranked by it → How it is computed →
Performance, window by window
| Total return | Multiple would give | Difference | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Window | GDXU | NUGT | GDXU | NUGT | GDXU | NUGT |
| 1 month | −34.1% | −22.0% | −32.6% | −21.7% | −1.4 pts | −0.2 pts |
| 3 months | +25.4% | +27.6% | +50.9% | +33.9% | −25.5 pts | −6.3 pts |
| 6 months | −53.6% | −27.7% | −25.6% | −17.1% | −27.9 pts | −10.6 pts |
| 1 year | −48.1% | −3.7% | +47.2% | +31.5% | −95.3 pts | −35.1 pts |
| 3 years | +349.3% | +474.5% | not meaningful | not meaningful | not meaningful | not meaningful |
| Since launch GDXU Dec 2020 · NUGT Dec 2010 | −56.1% | −99.8% | not meaningful | +134.3% | not meaningful | −234.1 pts |
GDXU and NUGT over each window. Every figure is an ETFIQ calculation with distributions reinvested. Source: ETFIQ. Open the live comparison on ETFIQ →
On the same fields
GDXU and NUGT on the same fields, as of Sep 30, 2026. Source: ETFIQ.
GDXU in plain words
Three months to Sep 30, 2026: GDXU returned +25.4% where its own daily promise gave +35.3%, 9.9 points short. Read the multiple against the whole window instead and 3 times GDX's 17.0% implies +50.9%, which makes GDXU look 25.5 points short. 15.6 of that is daily compounding, which happens to any 3 times fund over the same path, and the rest is the fund. GDXU aims to return +3 times GDX's move each day, then resets. Over one day it does that. Over longer, the daily results compound, so the total is not +3 times the period's move: in a market that falls and comes back it is reliably less, and in a steady run it can be more. GDX moved at 48% annualized over that window. That is what decides how far the two figures separate: the same fund on a calm underlying and a violent one is a different product.
NUGT in plain words
Three months to Sep 30, 2026: NUGT returned +27.6% where its own daily promise gave +29.3%, 1.7 points short. Read the multiple against the whole window instead and 2 times GDX's 17.0% implies +33.9%, which makes NUGT look 6.3 points short. 4.6 of that is daily compounding, which happens to any 2 times fund over the same path, and the rest is the fund. NUGT aims to return +2 times GDX's move each day, then resets. Over longer, the daily results compound, so the total is not +2 times the period's move: in a market that falls and comes back it is reliably less, and in a steady run it can be more.
Questions people ask
- Which came closer to its stated multiple, GDXU or NUGT?
- Over the window to Sep 30, 2026, GDXU finished 25.5 points from what its multiple implies and NUGT finished 6.3 points from its own, so NUGT came closer. Neither figure predicts the next window: it depends on how much the underlying moves about.
- Are GDXU and NUGT levered on the same thing?
- Yes. Both are levered on gold miners, GDXU at +3 times and NUGT at +2 times the daily move.
- Which one decays faster, GDXU or NUGT?
- Decay follows how much the underlying moves about. Over this window GDXU’s moved at 48% annualized and NUGT’s at 48%, so GDXU has the rougher ride and, at the same multiple, loses more to compounding.
- Can I hold GDXU or NUGT for a year?
- Both reset every day, so the multiple in the name applies to a single day and the daily results compound. Over a year the total is not the multiple times the year’s move, and in a market that falls and comes back it is reliably less. ETFIQ makes no recommendation either way.
ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure. It is not affiliated with any issuer, and a link is not an endorsement. A comparison is not a recommendation.
ETFIQ, GDXU against NUGT, data as of Sep 30, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/leverage/gdxu-vs-nugt
Free to use with attribution. Every figure is calculated from a named public source; the method is at etfiq.com/methodology.
Cite this page. ETFIQ, GDXU against NUGT, data as of Sep 30, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/leverage/gdxu-vs-nugt Free to use with attribution; the underlying files are at Open data.
Other forms
- Plain
- ETFIQ, GDXU against NUGT, data as of Sep 30, 2026. https://etfiq.com/compare/leverage/gdxu-vs-nugt
- APA
- ETFIQ. (Sep 30, 2026). GDXU against NUGT. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/compare/leverage/gdxu-vs-nugt
- Markdown
- [GDXU against NUGT (ETFIQ, Sep 30, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/compare/leverage/gdxu-vs-nugt)